The Story Of Our Lives
by War
Summary: A story with all the people from Planetarion


The Universe is old, much older than any scientist ever predicted

The Universe is old, much older than any scientist ever predicted. Life throughout the universe had flourished and then died. Civilisations had achieved the peak of technological and sociological advancement, and then they descended in decadence. Throughout the universe it was the same. Except for one planet, where evolution, had for some reason, been much slower, and the resulting intelligent species had had a much slower rise to power. This planet is Earth. By the time humanity had the technology to travel to other stars they were too late. All they found were artefacts and long dead civilisations. Humanity was alone in the universe; this was not a problem for most. So humanity began to disperse and populate the new stars. Leaving behind their now dead home planet Earth.

Unfortunately humanities greatest downfall is its warlike attitude. With newer and greater technology they did not use it to improve their society. Technology was turned to war, and the death of entire populations. Once wars had been fought between countries, along small borders. Now they were fought between planets, and solar systems. The backlash of these wars would affect all those around them. Individual humans may have cared about people, but humanity itself was only concerned with one thing; being the most powerful. And so they fought.

By the old human calendar the year is 4600 AD. Humanity has reached the peak of its technology. It has ships that can travel from one end of the universe to the other faster than the long gone jets could travel around the also long gone Earth. A Golden Age is within our reach, but we ignore it. Our greed and anger means we only seek to expand, not to improve what we already have.

Penny was the captain of the Star Cruiser Doppelganger. She had risen to her post 70 years ago and still had at least another 100 years of service ahead of her. At a single glance it would be hard to call her human. Penny was an augmented. A human who had forgone all biological roots and had replaced her body with a machine. She was vaguely humanoid in shape. She stood two metres tall, with the normal amount of legs but an extra pair of arms. Her face was a completely blank ovoid of a dark reflective material. Penny had seen action many times and was well prepared. Her skin had been replaced with a impact hardening flex-steel and she had so many built in weapon systems that her crew were wary about what would happen if she got angry. But despite all this Penny retained one thing which dated back through millennia. She still retained her humanity, empathy and compassion. This is why when we look at her now she is arguing with the holo-screen.

"We cannot bombard innocent civilians merely because they happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time." Penny brought her fist down on the console.

"Nevertheless they did back the construction of this planets defence systems"

"A people who were attempting to defend themselves from others."

"May I remind you", said the stern face in the holo-screen, "that they did shoot down 10 of our ships."

Penny looked at her supervisors image in disbelief, "you are proposing that I wipe out this planet merely because they shot down 10 ships which emerged outside the designated emergence zones with their weapons active?"

"They shot down 10 ships which were carrying diplomatic figures to their planet."

Penny gave a short barking laugh, "don't try your lies with me, I was here when it happened, I saw the ships arrive."

"We still expect you to commence planetary bombardment, or do you refuse to accept your orders?" the supervisor asked.

Penny looked at the screen in amazement, "you ask me to commit genocide." With that she switched off the screen. In all her 70 years of service as captain of the ship she had never been asked to carry out something so horrendous. True, she had intercepted and destroyed entire fleets, but never had she fired upon civilians. She looked towards her second officer War for help. War, another augmented like herself was even taller than her. When he shrugged in response to her plea it was like two tectonic plates coming together.

"I don't see what option we have, either we carry out our orders, or we don't. If we don't I don't think command will be to happy with us."

Penny looked down at the console she was sitting at, "there is a third option."

"You know no one has ever survived a desertion", War grumbled.

"Come on War", Penny smiled, "we could give it our best shot."

War groaned theatrically and looked around the ship. The intercom opened up and he began to talk; "This ship shall soon be leaving service, those who do not wish to come with us can leave, the rest can come."

Ensigns looked at each, startled. They had not been expecting this. One of them, known as Liberty stood up; "Begging your pardon ma'am, but we've served with you for 40 years now. And we'll be buggered before we leave you." Penny smiled at him.

"Very well then, activate the main engines and charge the jump nodes. We're leaving."

Doppelganger blasted out of orbit at two gee acceleration. The ships holo-screens flickered on, the supervisors face reappeared.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" he yelled, "get back down there and commence planetary bombardment."

Penny looked up at the screen, "begging your pardon sir, but you can shove it where the sun don't shine." The ships jump nodes activated and a rift into hyperspace opened. Doppelganger dropped in.

Spinner turned away from the screen he was sitting at, "Bugger we seem to have lost them." Denial nodded.

"Do you want me to activate the hunter fleet and go after them?"

"Very well," said Spinner, "we can't let them go unpunished after all." Denial grinned and reached for the teleport.

In another star system a rift opened up and out dropped Doppelganger, it immediately showed up on Denials sensors, "gotcha", he growled. His small fleet of specialist fleets tore open a wormhole and dropped in. Back at Doppelganger the crew had stood down from alert. 24 hours had passed and nothing had happened most of the crew had bunked down for some rest. Penny was undergoing the nearest thing that came to rest. Her body was undergoing testing and maintenance, alongside War.

"How long do you think we'll last then?" she asked. War was far older than her and had seen desertions many times in his service. No one actually knew how old he was, but there were rumours.

"Not long I fear, I have never seen a successful desertion, they always track them down. If we are lucky and keep moving we may last a few years." He made a sweeping gesture, "our top of the range systems should improve our chances."

Penny looked down at her feet, "so you think it was a good idea?"

War laughed, "there is no such thing as a good idea, but I have to say I prefer this to anything else, about time I had something different happening to me, I feared I had seen it all. After all there is only so much that can happen."

Penny looked at War, "just how old are you?" she asked. Again War chuckled and waved his hands around, "maybe one day you will find out, but I think at the moment I will keep it to myself."

The sirens rang out and the lights began to flash red. War and Penny disengaged the diagnostic equipment. War headed of to the rear engine rooms. Penny ran through the corridors of her ship. Typical, she thought, they always attack when you least expect it. She ran into the bridge of her Star Cruiser, Doppelganger and sat down in front of the main view screen.

"What do we have", she barked at one of the ensigns.

"We're picking up three vessels ma'am, they appear to be corvette class we shouldn't have a problem with them."

"Ensign, the best way to stay alive is not to assume superiority, that has been the downfall of many."

Penny looked at the view screen, the purple vector trails of the approaching ships were shown with their estimated flight paths. There were indeed only corvettes approaching, she studied the quantum signature of the wormhole they had emerged out of.

"The wormhole does not appear to be large enough for anything greater than a corvette, at most expect these three corvettes and a contingent of phantoms. However many there are I believe we should have the upper hand here", she informed the ensign. The holo-emitters flickered into life. A handsome yet stern face grew into existence and looked towards Penny. "I advise you surrender before we have to fight, we would hate to inflict too many casualties."

Penny puzzled this over, it did not sound like words of someone who was unsure of the outcome. No cruiser had ever been destroyed by three corvettes, even with the aid of phantoms. Lights began to flash on the screens around the bridge and the sirens opened up. "Ships detected, 10 cloaked ships of the starboard bow."

The ships sensors focused on the patch of space to the right of the ship. Space seemed to wobble and shake and where there had been empty space there were ten ships.

"What in the United Galaxies are those?" was the cry that rang out over the bridge. They were certainly not phantoms, neither were they ghosts.

"Captain, they belong to the corvette class, similar armament to the Torpedo but we have never seen ones which could cloak before."

"So", Penny mused, "they have new ships, well this is a surprise."

"Captain, we are outgunned, they have the greater firepower, we cannot win this fight."

"That is true, we won't win a head-on fight but there are other things we can do."

Penny took manual control of the cruiser, a joystick rose up out of the console in front of her and the tactical programs opened up.

"Fasten your seat belts people, this'll be a bumpy ride."

She pushed the ships engine up to 30% acceleration and the cruiser blasted out of orbit. She piloted the ship straight towards the enemy ships, they began to scatter out of the way. She initiated a turn procedure but pushed the ships engines up to maximum. The plumes of superheated plasma coming out of the back of the ship grew in length, and the sweeping motion of the ship used these plumes like a flame thrower. Three of the cloaked corvettes disintegrated under the terrible heat of the cruisers exhaust. The cruiser began to accelerate away from the enemy.

The captains of the corvettes realised what Penny was doing and went after in pursuit and adopted a ring formation, widely spaced so the same trick could not be used again. The ships accelerated in towards the planet as hard as they could. From the planet below it looked as if someone had placed a halo of stars in orbit around them. Penny left it to the last moment before pulling her ship up, grazing the atmosphere. The underside of her ship glowed red as the air ran along the metal. One of the corvettes in pursuit exploded, it's plasma tubes had given out under the intense heat. The debris fell to earth. There were still 9 ships in pursuit. Penny strove for altitude so she could initiate her ships jump nodes and escape though hyperspace. She pushed her ships engines yet further past their safety limits. She triggered the jump nodes and a hyperspacial rift opened up. The next events happened in the space of a few milliseconds.

Another rift opened up and an asteroid newly captured emerged through it, right in the centre of the rift Pennys ship had opened. The cruiser drove into the asteroid travelling at a significant percentage of light speed. The hull of the cruiser did not break, but it bent inwards, deck after deck were obliterated as they were crushed. Ship and asteroid moved into the rift. It closed behind them.

Above another planet, in another galaxy, a rift opened and a cruiser and asteroid spiralled out of it, locked in a deadly embrace. They tumbled down towards the planet below, Penny looked in frustration at the view screens as her ship plummeted helplessly towards the surface.

"Well, it was a good ship whilst it lasted, everyone to the escape pods."

A mad rush ensued as people made their way to the ships escape pods. The cruiser seemed to be giving birth when pod after pod shot away from the ship. Their parachutes opened up and they glided down through the atmosphere. Before she had left Penny had initiated the remaining retros in the cruiser, slowing its descent. By the time it hit the ground it was travelling at a mere 100 metres per second. The shockwaves from its impact reverberated round the world and a cloud of dust was thrown up into the sky. Pennys pod settled down on the earth, and she stepped out. She didn't know where she was, what was left or whose side she was on. All she knew was that she had survived and now had to find a way home for herself and her crew. She looked up into the blue sky and the sun glaring down on her. Up there was her home planet. Before it had seemed as if she could visit it whenever she wanted, now it seemed so far away she just wanted to cry. Once she had had the ability to travel between the stars, now she was stranded on a planet no one had ever heard off, as far away from civilisation as was possible in this day and age. Well, she considered, I've had worse days. War stepped out from another pod behind her and put his arm over her shoulders. "It is turning out to be quite a day today isn't it," he said, "let's find out just how rusty I am, this'll be a fine adventure Penny."

She looked up at him in astonishment, "you aren't even frightened, you never panicked."

War allowed a brief smile, "as I keep saying, nothing out there surprises me any more, I've been around too long."

Night fell on the planet, the crew of the Doppelganger organised themselves into a camp and settled down for the night. Penny sat and stared up into the nights sky.

Denial sat in his quarters looking over the battle reports. Three Wraiths and a Phoenix lost and their enemy hadn't even fired their weapons once, she was good. 

"Of course she's good", said Spinners hologram as it lit up, "that's how she got her position so quickly from such a low background."

Denial looked up towards Spinner, "I know, if it hadn't have been for that asteroid she would have made an easy escape, as it is there's no way we can track her. We presume the Doppelganger to be destroyed so she must have evacuated it. We've found the Doppelgangers last position, a terracompatible planet orbiting a G class star. I'll be heading a search and destroy party."

"Good, good", Spinner nodded. The hologram disappeared. Denial turned away and pressed the intercom button, "Prepare my battle suit and an away party, we're going down to the planet." Denial smirked; he always enjoyed this part of the chase the most. Actually going head to head with the deserters, hearing their cries of fear as they ran from him, to hear their final dying breaths as he tore them apart with his lasers. He gave a contented sigh and left his quarters.

Down in the bay of his Phoenix was Denials battlesuit. Standing 4 metres tall it was an unstoppable power. Over the years he had added new parts to it, it had lasers, projectile weapons, covalence bonding generators, plasma cannons, AG propulsion fields and a multitude of radar systems. It could travel at speeds in excess of 80 miles an hour along the ground. It could also boost itself into and out of a planetary atmosphere. Denial climbed into his suit and engaged its systems.

"Prod, you have control of the ship until I get back. If they make any attempt to escape this planet shoot them out of the sky."

"Yes, sir." Prod saluted Denial and left the bay. Denial activated the bays doors and dropped out into orbit around the planet. He engaged the AG fields and shot down towards the planet. 

"Oh crap", said Penny, she pointed up at the sky. "We have something entering the atmosphere". War looked up, his enhanced retinas zoomed in on the speeding object. 

"Well I've seen that one before, it's Denial I'd know that battlesuit anywhere". He stood up and raised his arms, "Of course I've been in this situation before."

"You what?" Penny looked startled, "you mean you've been hunted down before?"

"Well, only once or twice, I don't make a habit of it." War grinned. The skin on the forearms of Wars second pair of arms peeled back. Plasma cannons popped out of the recesses. He began to swivel from the waist following Denials path through the air. War opened fire.

"Shit," Denial shouted down the intercom, "they're shooting at me."

"Do you want us to bomb the surface, sir?" queried Prod.

"No, I want the pleasure of taking them out myself, once I'm on the surface I'll be obscured from their view anyway." Denial landed his suit two kilometres from the position where the shooting was coming from.

War looked around, his gaze settled on Penny. "We're going to have to move this lot. I want you to get this lot as far from here as possible, I'll hold back Denial whilst you make your escape."

"But where can we escape to", cried Penny, almost hysterically, "we're trapped here. On this godforsaken planet."

Once again War grinned, "not quite stuck here, I always plan ahead. An unmanned ship should be arriving in 5 hours time. I want you to take everyone away from here, try to escape." Penny looked in amazement at War;

"And leave you here, to fight Denial, I don't think so."

"It'll be fun, it'll make a change, just get away from here. I'll be fine. I've survived so far." War pushed Penny away and he sprinted into the forest. "Go".

Denial pounded through the forest, not caring to move out the way of trees. Behind him he left a path of destruction, like he had throughout so much of the universe. He mused to himself as he ran, looking forward to the fight that he was expecting from the renegade crew. He went through diagnostics of all his weapon systems, everything seemed to be working fine. Ahead of him he could pick up one humanoid moving through the undergrowth. Denial grinned.

War had also seen Denial, though it was not hard to, Denial made no attempt at stealth, he activated his comm-link to Penny.

"I'm close to Denial now, I'll hold him off as long as I can, whilst I'm doing this I want you to get to the highest open ground you can. My ship will pick you up from there."

"What about you", asked Penny, "we can't just leave you here."

War terminated the comm-link and focused on Denial. A fragmentation grenade launcher slid out of one of the recesses in his back. He grasped its handle and swung it round to point at Denial. It shot out a grenade, it whistled through the air and exploded next Denial.

Denial was flung to the ground, "shit", he growled. He returned fire with his plasma cannons, obliterating all the trees and undergrowth around him. He climbed back to his feet and pinpointed Wars position. "I advise you come out with your hands in the air well away from any weapons", he bellowed. War stepped out of the undergrowth.

"I see you have chosen the best course of action, you never did stand a chance", said Denial.

"I suppose that's one way of looking at it, then again there are others."

"And what is that supposed to mean?" asked Denial, "either you give yourself up or I kill you."

"And in the meantime everyone else can escape you."

"There is no escape from me, I shall hunt them down even if it means travelling right around this planet."

War chuckled, "it'll be a lot further than that". The skin peeled back on Wars forearms and plasma cannons slid out. War jumped to the side as he opened fire, sending plasma bolts into Denials chest.

"Scum", screamed Denial, and he pulled out an incendiary cannon.

He opened fire, catching War on the leg. War stumbled and fell to the floor, Denial walked over and fired at the other leg. War lay on the floor where he had fallen.

"Got you know", Denial grinned. His grin faded as a membrane began to grow out of one of Wars recessed covering his whole body.

"Just one last surprise", said War, "always wanted to try this."

Denials forehead crinkled in confusion, then he saw the bomb that War was holding in his hand, he saw the digits flash down to zero.

"Oh shit"; he cried and strove for distance between him and the bomb. War threw the bomb up in the air. A flash of light, followed by a tremendous boom rang out. The oncoming blast of heat hit Denial. He shot out of the explosion still accelerating, the suit struggling to dissipate the huge amount of heat it was being exposed to. He screamed as he shot up into the sky. Below him the fusion bomb had decimated the land, he couldn't see anything for smoke.

From their position on top of a hill Penny was in a good position to see the explosion. Wars last transmission came through, "I want you to get away from here, keep away from Denial and stay alive. Look after the others, my ship will take you to a planet I know of. Take car.." The transmission cut out.

Penny gave a strangled cry, "War".

She watched as the explosion expanded and destroyed all the land around it. In a strange and perverted way the explosion was beautiful, light playing across its surface. She looked up to the sky and saw two lights in the sky.

"Sir," Prods voice came through on the intercom, "we have a ship heading for the planet, shall we shoot it down?"

"Shoot it down, obliterate it. Make sure it doesn't land."

Prod grinned and activated the Phoenixes weapon systems and targeted the other ship. Strange he thought, he had never seen its type before, a frigate of some sort, but with an unusual configuration. Prod shrugged and fired. With amazement he watched as the torpedo exploded short of the frigate, he fired again. The second torpedo exploded as well. The frigate coasted down into the planets atmosphere. Now Prod was really worried. Ships weren't designed to go into an atmosphere these days. This one seemed to have no problem though. It coasted down into the atmosphere. Even stranger, it had no turbulence in the atmosphere. Prod established a link with Denial.

"Um, sir. We have a problem."

"What is it", barked Denial.

"The other ship, sir. We were unable to destroy it and it's headed for the surface itself, it's not using a landing craft. It's just entered the atmosphere, it shouldn't be able to do that."

"Damn", said Denial, "I'll get them before the ship gets to them."

Denial flew through the air, his AG field on maximum. He was in a race against the ship now, and he seemed to be losing. He groaned, he was going to lose them. He knew it. He watched as the ship landed.

Penny looked back over her shoulder at the crater left by the explosion. It was times like this that she was glad that she no longer had tear glands. But then again she reflected, crying seemed like a way to relieve the grief. She turned back and climbed into the ship.


End file.
